The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.

In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha — one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice.

Memoirs of a Geisha meets The Name of the Wind in this brilliant new fantasy series by Rin Chupeco!

When I was selected to review this book I was so excited, the premise is exciting – Geisha-esque witches, especially a select few who can actually raise the dead? Yes, please. Not only that but the cover is absolutely beautiful, yes and yes, please.

However, within the first few pages, I found myself confronted with an issue that extended throughout the entire book. While the pictures painted life into the world it also distracts from the story and tends to bore one. There is a difficult balance between painting the world to make it three dimensional and then boring a reader to death when it comes to the hua [robe] an Asha [witch/geisha] wears. This transpires through the entire book, I found myself on a rollercoaster ride as far as interest goes.

The book is also told in two ways [similar to Night Circus] it is told by Tea [Tee-uh,] as she recounts her past to a bard and then it switches to the past as the recounting is happening. The premise of the story is VERY interesting.

There are demons plaguing the village and Tea’s brother Fox is slain during a battle, she hears him reaching out, talking to her and by an accident raises him from the dead, it’s then she discovers that she is, in fact, a bone witch. She is then taken in by a bone witch to learn the trade.

We learn a great deal about the world, what ashas are, how and why their heartglass’ are important and that reading a heartglass is an art to be learned. We learn so much about the world, but very little actually happens and when I say that I really, truly mean nothing much happens. There are a lot of depictions, history drops, information about the world, but the story takes a back seat to all of that to the point I didn’t remember what the story was actually about.

This is a very difficult book for me to rate because I do so love epic world building, which this definitely was but it went to the extreme to the point I was lost and for that, it dropped a few points for me. Still? It deserves 3.5 savvy crowns because of the ideas and the tremendous world that was built within.

I know right!? I loved the ideas behind the story and the world, I just wish it was focused more on a rolling story…like toward the end a little more. I don’t feel right giving it anything less than 3.5 because of the overall magnificence. ( in my humble opinion!)